[GSBN] Arcosanti, an Early Eco-City, Faces the Future - NYTimes article

[martin hammer]

All,

Thought I would pass on this New York Times article about Arcosanti, the
experimental ecological city in the Arizona desert, conceived and begun by
Italian visionary architect Paolo Soleri in 1970.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/garden/an-early-eco-city-faces-the-future.
html?pagewanted=1

Judge the article yourself, but I find the tone troubling.  Mostly it
alternates between positive (and not unrealistic) statements from current
Arcosanti citizens, and backhanded denigrating comments from the writer.

It also says nothing about former Arcosanti citizens who are out in the
world doing great work, solving some of the persistent problems Arcosanti
set out to tackle, and the importance of Soleri¹s influence in this regard.
I know one such individual, Richard Register, who in California went on to
found Urban Ecology and then Ecocity Builders (www.ecocitybuilders.org)
which now conducts major worldwide conferences to serve its goal to ³reshape
cities for the long-term health of human and natural systems.²

I visited Arcosanti in 1990, and although it exhibited and continues to
exhibit its shortcomings, and one could even say failures, its dismissal by
this writer, seems to me more of an indictment of our culture (that this
writer seems to speak for) than an accurate reflection of the successes,
failures, and importance of Arcosanti.

Martin


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